The moment he clenched his fists, Lu Chu stared at the tree with sharp eyes and, without wasting time, thrust his hand forward and attacked it with all his physical strength.
Boom!
His fist sank into the bark, making the poor tree tremble, and soon a loud cracking sound echoed through the area.
Retracting his arm, Lu Chu looked at the spot he had struck.
A fist-shaped hole appeared in the trunk, revealing a white surface about ten centimeters beneath the outer layer.
"My fist can only damage the trunk a little." He murmured, disappointed.
At the same time, he felt that webnovels were a lie.
'Who said you could topple trees in the first realm!' he screamed internally, feeling even more let down.
After this moment of frustration, he decided to test something else he was curious about.
'Spiritual point.'
That was what he wanted to understand now.
'How do I activate it? Just sit cross-legged and draw out the energy?'
He was sure that was the way—most stories described it like this—and this time wouldn't be any different.
"Let's confirm it." He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
At first, he felt nothing, but he didn't give up.
"Control your breathing!"
Following a subconscious order, he began adjusting his breathing, inhaling slowly, then quickly.
He tried to find his rhythm, and after ten minutes, he did.
Reaching that point, Lu Chu felt his circulation improving, and at the same time, he sensed his blood flowing throughout his body.
It was a strange feeling for someone from the 21st century.
He couldn't get used to it; it made him feel extremely uneasy, hearing internal sounds.
'Calm down, don't fall into the strangeness.'
His inner voice whispered like a mantra.
Soon Lu Chu's feelings adapted to the sensation, treating everything as normal, nothing strange.
After a few more minutes, he managed to fully adjust and then focused internally, noticing everything, including the mental map in his mind—literally inside his head!
'Damn it! I knew it! Now that I'm sure, I feel horrible having something inside my brain.'
He thought, feeling nausea rise in his throat; if he hadn't held back, he would have vomited.
Diverting his attention elsewhere, he looked down and saw that at the center of his body, near his abdomen, there was a small circle filled with a gaseous green liquid.
'Is this the spiritual point? Qihai? Meridians? Spiritual vein? Doesn't matter, I'll name it myself... Spiritual Gathering Point, simple and easy to understand.'
Reaching this conclusion, he tried to draw out the energy and soon saw the liquid move according to his will.
Opening his eyes, Lu Chu stared at the tree again.
After staring for a moment, he stood up and covered his palm with the green energy, then moved straight toward the trunk.
As he struck, his hand sank into the bark, tearing through it like paper, and soon emerged from the other side.
"Holy shit! So the webnovels weren't lying! All you need is spiritual energy... and kaboom, I pierced through a tree!"
Lu Chu exclaimed excitedly! His emotions soared, totally euphoric at the destruction.
After a while, he looked inside himself and saw that his green energy was depleted.
'I drained my energy, what a pain, and I only used it once.' He felt frustrated.
Cursing a few times, he gathered tree bark pieces and sent them to his mental space; after collecting them all, he entered it.
As always, above him, large chunks of tree bark were falling from the sky.
'Now that I know where this is located, it feels weird to come in here... In the cultivation world, what do they call this? Mental space? Yeah, that's it, and my current form must be spiritual consciousness.'
He felt uncomfortable but swallowed the bitterness.
'Get strong enough to unlock the memories you lost. I'm curious about how I ended up here. And at the same time, thinking about those annoying classmates—are they still on Earth? Or in this world too? Well, whatever, they weren't my friends anyway!'
Poor Lu Chu had no friends; most people found him strange, mainly because he was an otaku, often lost in his own world.
'Bunch of annoying people, talking about me now? I'm a superhuman!'
He smiled and grabbed the brown drops that fell into his hand. This time, he felt his skin becoming tougher.
'The leaves are for vitality, the bark is for skin... then the pulp would be for flesh?'
Lu Chu realized something at that moment: a new function of the mental map.
It may not refine the same thing again, but it could refine different specimens.
And each thing had different forms of enhancement.
'And the earth? What would it be for? Rocks should symbolize hardness, I guess. Then the earth...'
He didn't know. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't find a logical use for the earth.
"I'll check that later." Lu Chu stopped thinking and looked at the mental map.
"Hey spirit, explain cultivation to me. If you can't talk much, type it out, my eyes are better now!" he shouted into the void.
"C-cultivation is about transcending human limits. To enter cultivation, you need talent. The better your talent, the faster you cultivate—"
"What's mine?" Lu Chu interrupted the poor spirit who was struggling to speak.
"The worst human talent, m-mortal."
"..."
After this revelation, Lu Chu was stunned; for a moment, everything in his mind froze, becoming blank.
It lasted until his brain accepted the information. "What a fucking cliché!"
He muttered, totally frustrated.
"M-master, don't worry! Even though your talent is trash, your body has infinite potential! Your path is unparalleled! In terms of cultivation, no one can match my master."
The spirit said excitedly.
"You're right!" he agreed.
'Infinite potential in the body, huh?... Not surprising after the torture I went through. So my destiny is to accumulate strength? Suffer pain to grow stronger... What an unlucky transmigrator I am...'
Lu Chu sighed, already preparing himself for the future, feeling it wouldn't be easy.
"Alright spirit, what are the cultivation realms?" he asked, curious.
[The first cultivation realm is the Opening Realm, where the goal is to open eight spiritual points.
Initial Stage, Middle Stage, Final Stage, Peak.
Every two spiritual points opened increase a mini-realm, but each stage has different functions.
Initial - Qi Points.
Middle - Channel Points.
Final - Blood Points.
Peak - Mental Point.
That's the function of the initial realm. After that, there are many others with different paths. I won't list them all to avoid overloading the master's mind.
Astral Realm, Sea Realm, Spiritual Wheel Realm, Stellar Realm, Starry Sea Realm, Nine Lives Theft Realm, Comprehension Realm, Emperor Realm.]
'Nine Main Realms... Surely there are more after those, typical repetitive Xianxia.' He joked.
'This cultivation system is interesting, even if a bit predictable. It has some originality... Eight spiritual points? What about the meridians?'